


The (Not So) Nice Guys

by lysiabeth



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 06:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14994485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lysiabeth/pseuds/lysiabeth
Summary: Lian is looking at him with something like apprehension in her eyes. Jason pauses – should he approach her? Is he allowed to? What even is the protocol for engaging with thirteen-year-olds who aren’t trained assassins in a Robin uniform?Lian smiles softly at him.





	The (Not So) Nice Guys

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT - 2 AUG 2018
> 
> This was once a chaptered work but I have decided to go a different route with it!! Updates to come soon :)

Jason knew Roy would kill him if he found out Lian had followed him to the roof to watch a showdown that if for some reason was played in a movie, your average thirteen-year-old wouldn’t even be allowed to get in the theatre.

His hands are slippery with blood. He doesn’t even know whose blood it is anymore. The likelihood of it being his is high, but it could also very easily be the blood of the guy underneath him he’s currently struggling very hard to kill.

A movement behind him takes his attention away for just a second, and the punch to his lower abdomen takes the breath out of him, even while he’s wearing his kevlar vest.

“Fuck!” He grits out, as the guy moves to crawl out from under him, and Jason grabs onto his ankle, dragging him across the roof – dodges a kick to his head, curses himself for only running after this guy with his domino mask on and not the whole hood, and finally gets him to stop moving around so much because he pulls out a knife and stabs him in the upper thigh.

The guys howls. For a somewhat top-of-the-line assassin, he was fairly easy to take down once Jason pulled himself together enough.

Well; the fact that he did manage to kill the daughter of Gotham’s second richest family is somewhat of a metaphorical spanner thrown in the works. Even if Jason couldn’t care less about her, it’s more about the fact that a grown man seems to have no problems with shooting a sixteen-year-old in the head execution style that makes Jason see red and have absolutely no qualms about bashing the guys’ head against the gritty rooftop.

Jason’s panting by the time he’s finished, his hands now slick with blood and grit and finding it hard to grab against the short strands of this guys hair.

“You think this is gonna solve it?” The guys asks. He’s smiling, his mouth covered in blood. He looks like every bad guy in the movies Stephanie is obsessed with, and Jason shrugs.

“Not really my problem if it does or doesn’t.” Jason shrugs, and then places his hands around the guys neck and squeezes.

Jason doesn’t usually go for hands-on deaths like this. Give him a bullet or a knife or hell, even a well-placed explosion that is guaranteed won’t leave any survivors and he’s set. But he’d lost his guns about five minutes into a fight, and his other knife that isn’t currently stuck in his merc’s thigh was tossed Roy’s way when they realised just how much shit had hit the fan.

He’s not a fan of strangulation, either. Jason knows the fear you get when you can’t breathe – has lived and partly died because of it, even. He knows the fear you get when your lungs start to burn. The guys is thrashing underneath him, and Jason could just snap his neck; should snap his neck, it’s the honourable thing to do, a drawn out and painful death never accomplished anything, and he’s just about to change his grip so that his thumbs tuck up underneath the guys chin so when he jerks his wrist just right his neck will snap like a glow-stick.

The guy’s eyes are panicked and he’s definitely turning blue in the face-

“Jason, no!” A voice yells. His hand jerk back and the mercenary lets out a shaky breath underneath him – another few seconds and he would have blacked out for sure.

“Lian, what the hell are you doing here?” Jason asks, placing his hand over the guys mouth so he can’t catch his breath too quickly.

“I followed you- Dad didn’t want you to do something you might regret.” Lian says. She’s shivering – her arms folded around herself – and isn’t it just typical that despite it being the middle of Autumn, she’s still ditched her cardigan and is standing in only her jeans and a tank top.

Three guesses where she got that trait from.

“Lian, go downstairs. Find your dad.” Jason almost growls out. He’s not a monster, he sure as hell isn’t going to just break this guy’s neck as Lian just stands and watches. Instead of turning back through the fire escape like Jason wishes she would, she places her hands on her hips and juts her chin out at him.

“Jason- Jason, if you kill this man, I will never speak to you again.” She says. She starts out shaky, but she’s got a conviction in her tone that almost blows the air out of Jason’s chest.

He looks back at the guy underneath him. He’s still got one hand over his face, the other curled in his turtleneck. He has options here – break his neck, firstly, he’s already halfway there. Jason also bets the guy is still disoriented, so any moves Jason makes to pull the knife out of his thigh and drive it through his carotid artery would likely not be thwarted.

But… Jason doesn’t want to ruin his suit any more than he already has. Not to mention Jason actually likes this kid and doing anything to make her upset with him makes him hesitate. When Jason had first considered teaming up with Roy, the thought of some other kid hanging around sent him back to nightmares he’d had when Damian was younger. He thinks he could justify it easily enough to Roy – he’s killed guys before, for doing way less messed up shit than the guy who is still looking up at Jason as he goes through his mini-crisis with fear. Roy could probably help him sway Lian – “He killed young girls just like you, sweetie, if he was never processed in prison properly he could have just come back out and started it all over again” – but that for some reason makes Jason’s stomach twist with something like guilt.

Fuck.

“Congratulations, man. You owe your life to a thirteen-year-old girl.” Jason says, and brings his fist down to the guys face, his nose crunching and blood splattering and him slouching into the roof underneath him which is the tell-tale sign that he’s out cold. Jason wipes a hand over his brow, then wipes his hands on his thighs. He pulls himself up from where he was still crouched – and Jesus if his ass isn’t going to  _ ache _ tomorrow – and lets out a sigh.

Lian is looking at him with something like apprehension in her eyes. Jason pauses – should he approach her? Is he allowed to? What even is the protocol for engaging with thirteen-year-olds who aren’t trained assassins in a Robin uniform?

Lian smiles softly at him.

“I knew you wouldn’t do that, Jason. Dad’s right when he tells everyone you’re a good man.” Lian says, moving to stand by the rooftop edge. Jason can hear cop car sirens wailing in the distance – his cue to go – but he follows Lian anyways, and Jason can see Roy across the road slumped against a car. He raises his hand in a wave, and Lian pulls her thumbs up at him.

Jason is itching to do something with his hands. He also needs to find his guns – those getting into the wrong hands or being traced back to him if the GCPD manages to get one is  _ so  _ what he doesn’t need right now.

He pauses.

“What do you mean, your dad tells everyone I’m a good man?” He asks, and Lian looks up at him.

“Well he does. I mean, I didn’t think it was a secret.” She says, as if that even begins to answer his question at all. Jason looks down over at Roy again, who appears to have pulled out a goddamn lollipop from somewhere. He’s unwrapping it and putting it into his mouth, placing the empty wrapper back into the pocket on his chest.

“Right.” Jason says, because his head has reached the point where all the adrenaline has run out and he’s noticing the pain of the bruises on his body and the ache from where he landed on his shoulder funny earlier. He also stinks – blood and sweat and the champagne from when the bottle he smashed over one of the other merc’s head had splashed down his front.

“We should go, the cops will probably want a statement, and I know how much you and dad both hate that.” Lian says, turning away towards the fire escape. She pauses as she passes their guy – still out cold, thankfully – and Jason can see her face scrunch before she disappears down the rickety steps.

Jason huffs another sigh and kicks at the guy just to triple-check he isn’t going to ambush him last minute or something. Leaning down, he hoists him over his shoulders. Roy probably has some zip ties on him – they can leave the guy in the not-so capable hands of the boys in blue. He’s done enough to help Gotham for one night.

 


End file.
